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A few folks expressed a fleeting interest in knowing how to fix electronics. The first step is learning how to solder! For $21, you can get a nice starter kit. You'll be putting together a siren with blinking lights; I've included a photo below that shows the large parts of the kit, but it comes with solder and a little stand. You'll need to provide an old kitchen sponge and some water.  When you're done, you will know how to put things into a board and remove them, and you get to keep the soldering iron and solder, so you could make small repairs to electronics around the house. Last week I fixed a wifi router with essentially this kit, and last month Cruft jr even managed to fix a webcam USB cable that the dog chewed through, using the same stuff. I imagine the whole thing is going to take 2-4 hours. Since everybody's in different time zones, let's plan on spreading it across a full week, at maybe 10-20 minutes per night, so you can get stuck, ask questions, get help, and get back to it the next night. If you're in, let me know, and we can get started putting it all together when everybody's kit has arrived. I'll be here to answer any questions you have, and probably other yobbers will want to help out too! Your pal, cruft |
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Aug 12, 2021 17:33
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| # ? May 5, 2024 00:12 |
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I'm in and also I may have bought the last one of those kits in stock
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Aug 12, 2021 17:40
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:I'm in and also I may have bought the last one of those kits in stock I reloaded the page and it went from saying "only 1 left - order soon" to "in stock". 
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Aug 12, 2021 17:44
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cruft posted:I reloaded the page and it went from saying "only 1 left - order soon" to "in stock". imagine a fine upstanding gentleman like jeff bezos using deceitful practices to get you click the buy button faster! inconceivable!
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Aug 12, 2021 17:47
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Ordered! Ty for making this thread 
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Aug 12, 2021 17:53
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I won't be able to order or anything until next week but thank you for the thread! I shall follow along regardless.
Fifteen years taking prescriptions |
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Aug 12, 2021 18:04
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I had one of those cold solder pens but it died and was crap anyway, one of these days I'll get an electric or butane one. They are useful. One thing to note - if you're using a sponge, make sure its a cellulose one and not those cheapy yellow foam ones because they'll melt. If you haven't got a sponge, you can use moist paper towel (or if you're a pro, just knock the excess solder off the tip by banging the side of the iron against the edge of table. This is an advanced move though so stick with what cruft tells you for now and don't listen to me). |
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Aug 12, 2021 18:08
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Finger Prince posted:I had one of those cold solder pens but it died and was crap anyway, one of these days I'll get an electric or butane one. They are useful. Oh yeah, good point, thanks for mentioning it. If you have cash to burn, a brass solder sponge is the pro way to do it. We're goin' for cheap, here, though. |
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Aug 12, 2021 18:36
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xcheopis posted:I won't be able to order or anything until next week but thank you for the thread! I shall follow along regardless. We can wait for you, or I'll do a round 2
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Aug 12, 2021 18:39
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cruft posted:We can wait for you, or I'll do a round 2 Don't wait! I hate keeping people waiting. Fifteen years taking prescriptions |
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Aug 12, 2021 18:40
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oh snap! I have been wanting to learn how to solder for years. maybe now is my time… |
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Aug 12, 2021 22:22
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xcheopis posted:Don't wait! I hate keeping people waiting. seconding this. as much as I should learn to solder I can say with certainty I'm not going to be acquiring a kit soon and I'll just look on the progress of others.
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Aug 12, 2021 22:35
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Is this the recruiting office? I need money for college and.....oh. This is cool too. |
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Aug 12, 2021 22:56
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soldering is cool and fun and anyone can do it. have a good time, newcomers!! |
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Aug 12, 2021 23:28
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Oh, another thing you'll need that cruft forgot to mention is a ready supply of cool running water and an Advil for when you burn your fingats. |
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Aug 12, 2021 23:59
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How much is Big Solder paying you cruft
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Aug 13, 2021 00:01
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Finger Prince posted:Oh, another thing you'll need that cruft forgot to mention is a ready supply of cool running water and an Advil for when you burn your fingats. You'll be fine: everything on this kit is a big honkin' thru-hole component. If you have a pair of eyebrow tweezers you want to use to hold stuff, you can do that. alnilam posted:How much is Big Solder paying you cruft 14¢ |
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Aug 13, 2021 00:05
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if i burn enough solder will i get the fun kind of lead poisoning?
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Aug 13, 2021 01:53
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Hi! I very much approve of this thread. I'm one of the few quasi-sentient beings in North America who is actually employed in the endeavor of repairing electronic stuffs. Soldering is a good skill to have, and 555 timer ICs are amazingly versatile and fun and nearly bullet-proof. The picture doesn't specify which transistors are being used, but I'd be not in the least surprised to find that they are 2N2222 transistors, possibly connected in such a way to make an astable multivibrator! I look forward to seeing the progress in this thrad.
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Aug 13, 2021 02:17
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:if i burn enough solder will i get the fun kind of lead poisoning? Not very likely, and it's probably too late.
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Aug 13, 2021 02:18
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I took an electronics class once and ended up stabbing the hot soldering iron tip under my thumbnail somehow and it was insanely painful but I was too shy to draw any attention to myself so I just sat there Anyway soldering is a neat skill to have and kudos to you |
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Aug 13, 2021 02:49
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are we going to cover soldering doomsday devices I have a kit and I'd really like to put it together but it's a little intimidating
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Aug 13, 2021 02:54
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I just had a remembory of learning to solder as a wee lad picking up trashed electronics in the neighbourhood and fixing them up with my friend so we had a like a tv and stereo and stuff in his treehouse that we brought back in a wagon like a couple of literal scamps. We also made chlorine gas bombs from a printout of the anarchists cookbook he had downloaded off a BBS on his commodore at like 400 baud or something ridiculous. We were like maybe 11 or 12? Good times. |
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Aug 13, 2021 03:08
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Can a mod add "Liquid Metal:" to the title of this thread? TIA.
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Aug 13, 2021 03:51
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Robot Made of Meat posted:Can a mod add "Liquid Metal:" to the title of this thread? TIA. |
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Aug 13, 2021 03:53
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:if i burn enough solder will i get the fun kind of lead poisoning? The solder in this kit is lead-free, sorry. Lead-free solder is actually harder to work with, but we're gonna soldier on and get the connections made anyway! |
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Aug 13, 2021 03:54
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It's pronounced sodder |
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Aug 13, 2021 08:17
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frump truck posted:soldering is cool and fun and anyone can do it. have a good time, newcomers!! Finger Prince posted:I just had a remembory of learning to solder as a wee lad picking up trashed electronics in the neighbourhood and fixing them up with my friend so we had a like a tv and stereo and stuff in his treehouse that we brought back in a wagon like a couple of literal scamps. We also made chlorine gas bombs from a printout of the anarchists cookbook he had downloaded off a BBS on his commodore at like 400 baud or something ridiculous. We were like maybe 11 or 12? Good times. soldering is cool. cruft is cool for making this thread. you're all cool for reading it and you'll be even cooler if you learn to solder ---------------- |
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Aug 13, 2021 08:19
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Armitag3 posted:It's pronounced sodder sauter ---------------- |
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Aug 13, 2021 08:19
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(whispers) I'm in
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Aug 13, 2021 08:36
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Never posted here before but always wanted to do this. All in |
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Aug 13, 2021 18:49
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JetSetGo posted:Never posted here before but always wanted to do this. All in Another BYOB success story! Welcome, friend.
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Aug 14, 2021 00:03
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JetSetGo posted:Never posted here before but always wanted to do this. All in Hell yeah |
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Aug 14, 2021 00:14
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I think lead free solder can be as dangerous as lead because your body isnt great at breathing in antimony or any of the other stuff That aside this sounds super fuckin cool and i wanna be in so bad, seconding others where ppl said they'd do a second round of it
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Aug 14, 2021 03:22
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alexandriao posted:I think lead free solder can be as dangerous as lead because your body isnt great at breathing in antimony or any of the other stuff I have a co-worker who got concerned years ago about the possibility that using lead solder every day with little or no precautions might have been a health issue. He got a test and found no elevated levels of lead in his system.
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Aug 14, 2021 04:37
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What a great thread! I learned to solder a few years ago and nothing feels better than your first nice and shiny, just-the-right-amount-of-solder soldering job. I am too shaky and imprecise for like teeny tiny soldering work but putting pin headers on stuff and soldering wires to bigger contact points? I'm all over that, and it's a lot of fun and rewarding |
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Aug 14, 2021 04:49
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Robot Made of Meat posted:Snipped cool info I'm interested in following along, but had enough soldering pipes to make ham radio antennas as a kid to know I don't like Flux or solder much.
Dr. Honked posted:the junk, rather than the trunk |
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Aug 15, 2021 04:13
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B33rChiller posted:Would that work as a vco for a homemade synthesizer? Or would you just get random frequencies out of it? Searching Google images, I see some pretty simple VCO circuits that use two-transistor oscillators. You can also use a 555 and a transistor. Unfortunately, you'd need quite a bit of filtering to change the square-wave output to something other.
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Aug 15, 2021 04:20
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Robot Made of Meat posted:Searching Google images, I see some pretty simple VCO circuits that use two-transistor oscillators. You can also use a 555 and a transistor. Unfortunately, you'd need quite a bit of filtering to change the square-wave output to something other.
Dr. Honked posted:the junk, rather than the trunk |
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Aug 15, 2021 04:21
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Filters are definitely where Bob Moog stood apart from the competition.
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Aug 15, 2021 04:44
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